Shards of Darkness
by Kaedephantom
Summary: When Danny is summoned by Clockwork, he learns that his death is nearing. Sent on one final mission by Clockwork, Danny must prevent a new demon from arising out of the depths of the shadows. But Danny soon learns that not all is what it seems to be. After all, fate decides the outcome in the end, and death will take exactly what, or who, it wants.
1. Chapter 1

Shards of Darkness

Chapter one: fate of a phantom

"Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not as an accident –it is as common as life"

…

Everyone dies. Everyone eventually takes their last breath, and they leave this life. To where? Who knows? Sometimes their souls move on to Heaven, or whatever you believe in. Other times, they remain as shadows, simple echoes of their past life. These ghosts haunt the living world in search of what they cannot ever regain. And sometimes, a soul crosses to the other side…yet it returns to life. These are the loneliest souls, because they are rare indeed. But…they bear the burden of having seen what's beyond. They've been in Death's cold grasp. But then they are harshly dragged back into the hell that is life, and must come to terms with the fact they're out of balance. Constantly teetering back and forth between death and life, never truly belonging to either; because Earth does not have room for those who should be dead, and the afterlife cannot accept those who are living. But soon, these lonely souls depart once more, on their final journey. It is then that they finally can rest in peace. How do I know? Because I am one of those souls. I am the one who broke the scales of life and death. I shattered them into a million shards of darkness, which will never be repaired. I am Danny Fenton, and this is the story of how I died. And _stayed_ dead.

It started out as a normal day- or, normal for me at least. After awaking to Jazz dumping ice-cold water on my head, (apparently I slept too long, but it's not my fault that the box ghost was especially relentless last night), I quickly dashed out of bed and rushed to get dressed. Then I scurried down the stairs to retrieve breakfast, and to say bye to my parents. Both of which were working on some invention…_again_. Well, at least this one looked non-lethal.

"Hi mom, hi dad." I said as a grabbed a slice of toast. Ugh, toast. Stuffing it into my mouth, I pulled my purple school bag over my shoulder and headed out the door. "Bye mom, bye dad." They didn't even look up as they unceremoniously waved farewell. When I shut the door, they had already turned their attention back to their work. Sighing, I headed to the stop sign to meet with Sam and Tucker, the toast in hand. Ugh, gross, why was I even eating it? Anyway, I wasn't _too_ late, so they were probably still there. After I crossed the street, I saw that I was right, and that both had faithfully waited for me for the last ten minutes. I smiled in appreciation, and bounded towards them. Oh, God bless the two of them. They were my only friends, unless I counted Jazz, but that's different; she's my sister, I love her, but I don't like her. When I caught up to then Tucker immediately brightened up and said,

"Finally, took you long enough." Sam just rolled her eyes, and took both our hands and (rather forcefully) dragged us to school.

I'm just gonna skip the description of school…I mean; come on, same thing every day. Blah, blah, blah, Lancer, blah, blah, blah Dash, blah, wedgie, blah, blah, blah, lunch. Plus, the story _really_ begins after the bell rings.

So once we got out of school (thank God), my ghost sense immediately went off, and Boxy flew by.

"Ugh, again?!" I groaned.

"Yeah, weren't you up all night because of him?" Tucker asked.

"Yup," Sam replied, "He was, and apparently the Box Ghost just doesn't know when to stop."

"Tell me about it," I sighed, "Going ghost!" And with that, I flew off towards the ghost, but then…time stopped. Literally, it stopped. Everyone except me was completely still. But I knew exactly what it was- or rather, _who_ it was. When I turned my suspicions were confirmed. "Clockwork! What are you doing here?"

But the ghost, who was currently in his old man form, had a tragic look on his face, and there was pity in his eyes.

"Danny…we need to talk." I was skeptic of course, especially with the sad tone of his voice. Then, his form shifted into that of a young child.

"About what?" I asked cautiously.

"I'm afraid…"he began, "I'm afraid that your end is nearing. I need to send you on one last mission before you must depart."

"Clockwork, I'm afraid that I don't understand." Clockwork turned away from me, so I couldn't read his face.

"Danny," he began solemnly, "It's time for you to die."


	2. Chapter 2

Shards of Darkness

Chapter two: revelation of a phantom

"Life asked Death, why do people love me, but hate you?

Death responded, because you are a beautiful lie, and I am a painful truth."

"DIE?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DIE?!" Needless to say, I didn't take it very well. Clockwork flinched at the rise of my voice, although he had anticipated it.

"Danny, I'm sorry, but it's inevitable. It will happen, and it will happen soon." I managed to calm myself down, but my words became forced, and were spat between my clenched teeth.

"When?"

"I cannot say."

"How?"

"I cannot say."

"Where?! Who?! Why?! At least tell me why!" My frustration grew, and a few hot tears rolled down my face. I furiously wiped them away, rather ashamed at showing weakness. Clockwork finally turned to face me again, pity pouring out of his eyes. _Again with the pity_, I thought bitterly.

"Danny…I cannot tell you much, but I can tell you that it is not a who, but a what that kills you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" My frustration had nearly met its limit, and all these vague answers from Clockwork weren't helping at all. It was just…so much to take in. Here I was, having a nice, _normal_ day, and now I just learned that I'm about to die. Again, I had to fight the urge to start crying. _Come on, _I thought, _you're a hero, you know you're in constant danger. Yeah, but there's a difference in dying in battle without knowing if you'll make it out or not and just being told all of the sudden. _"Ok, Clockwork, fine I die? What is it if it's not another person? An accident? Disease? Give me something." The other ghost gave me a knowing smile, and shook his head sadly.

"It is Death." I felt the sudden urge to smack the ghost and say, "Well no shit, Sherlock." But seeing as Clockwork was the master of all time and had saved my butt on many other occasions, I decided that was probably not the best choice.

"Ok," I groaned, "Lemme get this straight; Death kills me?" Clockwork didn't flinch at the heavy sarcasm in my voice, but instead nodded his head solemnly as he shifted into a middle-aged man.

"Indeed." He agreed.

"Clockwork, isn't that how everyone dies?" I scoffed. He shook his head and pointed at me.

"No. I mean literally, Death kills you. Death is- for lack of a better term- a spirit. It is Lord Death that reaps the souls of the departed, but he is never the actual bringer of death. When someone dies, Death appears to them and offers those two choices: either follow him to the next existence, or stay behind as a ghost. That is his one duty"

"Ok…so why would he personally kill me though? I mean, I've never met the guy. How did I get on his bad side?" Clockwork twirled his staff in his hand, as he turned to face me. Then he thrust the staff in my face and said,

"Because you, Danny Fenton, are an abomination. Not living, but certainly not dead. You see, you _have_ met him once, when you died. You have offended Lord Death by crossing into his realm, but when he came to offer you your choice, you returned back to the living as a halfa." My face grew pale with each word. I had always known that I was a freak, neither living nor dead, but I never dwelled too much on the fact; it was a rather depressing subject.

'But, I…I mean, I never meant…" I stammered. "How is it my fault?!" I exploded. "It's not my fault that the accident messed up my DNA! I never meant to cheat or offend Death; heck, I didn't know that Death had feelings! Wait, what about Vlad?! He's a halfa too? Why isn't _he _being struck down?! That's not fair at all!" My voiced grew louder and harsher at each word, despite me knowing that I shouldn't be mad at Clockwork; it wasn't his fault. I took a second to compose myself, before I asked one last question. "Why me? I don't want to die."

"That's the question everyone asks, isn't it? To answer your previous question Danny, it is true that Vlad Masters is every bit an abomination as you. However, there is one massive difference. The accident Vlad was in didn't kill him; he was blasted with a much smaller and less concentrated amount of ectoplasmic energy. Danny, you died. You were gone. But the portal incident practically dragged you back from the hands of Death. It's not the same as those whose hearts ceases to beat for a while, before being revived. You were most certainly killed; the electricity took care of that. But you DNA was being changed even as you died. The transfer from human to ghost _while_ you were dying triggered your resurrection, and you came back as a halfa. Death wants you back Danny, and fate will allow for it. But…I have something I need you to do before you pass on."

"What do you mean?" I asked nervously.

"I am going to send you on one last mission. This is what you must do: I am going to send you into the future. Here you will simply observe as a shadow, and nothing more. No one will be able to hear, feel or see you, therefore you cannot interfere. It is here that I want you to keep an ancient evil from arising, if you cannot stop it then we will all perish."

"Wait, how do I stop it if I can't interfere with anything? And what exactly is this "evil"?"

"You must learn the answer to both of the questions on your own. Now, it is time for you to leave. If you can finish the task before your death, I will grant you a final choice. I bid you great luck, Danny." I opened my mouth to protest, but never got the chance, as I was suddenly whisked into a vortex of swirling colors.

…

Author's note: Hi guys! Sorry, I forgot to put an author's note on the first chapter. Anyway, this is my very first fic, and I hope that it's off to a decent start! Thank you for the several follows that I already have! I haven't looked at it in a while, but whoever read or faved it, thank you very much! Anyway, if you haven't noticed yet, this is going to end up being AU. Also, this is T for dark themes, some violence, and maybe a few cuss words here and there. Not too bad, but I wanna give you guys a fair warning. I'll try to have chapter 3 uploaded soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Shards of Darkness

Chapter 3: duty of a phantom

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new end."

After being violently spun into a swirling portal, (gee, thanks Clockwork, I nearly threw up) I landed face-planted into something hard. I groaned in pain, and looked down to see that I had slammed into the ground, leaving a nice Danny-shaped dent in the grass. _This day just gets better and better…_ After I regained my breath, I pushed myself up, and scanned my surroundings, fearing the worst. But, all I saw was…Amity Park. A _normal_ Amity Park; it was rather peaceful. _What gives, Clockwork? _I thought. I looked for something out of place, but nothing seemed too strange; there weren't even any ghost attacks. Sighing, I started walking in the direction of Fenton Works, as it was probably the best place to look.

As I roamed the street, no one paid me any mind. _Ok_, I thought, _they can't see me; that's good…right?_ But I got the feeling that it actually wasn't. Lost in my train of thought, I nearly missed my house. But that could've been because it was different. Not too different, it definitely still screamed Fenton, but it was more subtle. Subtle, as in there was no large neon sign flashing out, "FENTONWORKS!" But the Ops center was still there, slightly modified, but still there. Taking a deep breath, I slipped through the wall and into the living room.

There I saw that the furniture was different then what it had been. Where there was an old, worn couch, there was now a sleek black leather couch. The fireplace had paintings hanged above it, rather than the embarrassing school pictures of Jazz and I; I was fine with this change. Having no better ideas, I decided to check out the lab.

The lab was actually eerily similar to what I was used too. Really, the only difference was a shiny, new lock on the ghost portal doors, which I guessed kept it locked better. _What do you know? Mom and dad finally learned. _I didn't really see anything out of place. Sighing, I walked over to the lab tables, which were covered in ghost hunting equipment like always. I scoured through all of it, including the blueprints and lab notes, but there was still nothing unusual. I threw a stack of notes back on the table in frustration. Nothing! I mean seriously, I had no clue what to do. Clockwork didn't make anything easy for me. Like, what am I supposed to do? Wait for the darn threat to show up?! I didn't even know what the threat was! I was considering slamming my fist in the wall, when suddenly the doorbell rang, which scared the crap out of me. But I decided to see who it was, and I floated up through the ceiling and into the living room.

But then I heard footsteps echoing upstairs, and I panicked before I realized that no one could see me. I walked to the door and tried to peer out, but before I could, a hand with black nail polish got there first. I turned around and saw that _Sam_ of all people was here. And she was older…not by a lot; she still looked like she was in her in her mid-twenties. I was startled by how pretty she looked; she was still gothic looking, but she wasn't wearing her miniskirt or crop top anymore. Her hair was longer also but she still had her black combat boots. I smiled and thought, _Sam will never change, huh? _I was busy looking at her while she opened the door, but when I heard a _very _familiar voice, I whipped my head around to see who it was. I was instantly shocked to see an older _me_ standing in the doorway.

…

AN: I am so sorry for the delay! I planned on writing a lot over this weekend, but I had an extremely long debate tournament, so…yeah. Anyway, I have changed my mind about the length of the chapters. I have decided to do short chapters that are frequently uploaded, than writing long ones that take forever, because I get super busy. Also, I feel like I'm better at short chapters, with nice little cliffhangers at the end. Sorry, if you like long chapters; I'll try to do that in my next fics. So, I almost decided not to include this…but here's a list of songs I feel like would be the "soundtrack" of this story. Some of these songs will make sense later, and none of them are in any particular order-

Lost Cause by Imagine Dragons

Ghost of You by My Chemical Romance

A Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars

Freak unique by Dutch Invasion

42 by Coldplay

Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace

Raise Your Weapon by Deadmau5

Clocks by Coldplay

Demons by Imagine Dragons

Disenchanted by My Chemical Romance

The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen

Dust in the Wind by Kansas


	4. Chapter 4

Shards of Darkness

Chapter four

"In every shadow there is light, in every tear a smile

In death I know there still is life that lingers for a while"

...

_No way!_ Was my first thought. This situation was too uncomfortable for me; I had already fulfilled a mission for Clockwork that involved an older, _evil _version of me. But he- I looked normal. _But wait! Aren't I supposed to be dead?! Clockwork said that I would die soon…but this is the future…so that was years ago! _Why was I freaking out, though? This should've been great news! But I only felt anger. Clockwork lied to me! He scared the shit out of me, just so I would take this mission seriously! How _dare _he! I felt my eyes brightening with a supernatural light, as rage seeped into the crevices in my mind. What was wrong with Clockwork, I thought he was my friend! But…he couldn't trust me, and so he had to convince me that I would die! That I would never, ever see my friends or family again. My eyes had soon filled with bitter tears, and I was glad that no one could see me. Speaking of the others…

I looked back at the scene, and watched as the other Danny, with groceries filling his arms, walked in and gave Sam huge smile, before planting a kiss on her cheek. _What the hell? _I thought. I mean, why would I do that to _Sam? _My friend! But a weird feeling started in the pit of my stomach, and almost on instinct, I felt my eyes travel down to Sam's left hand. There, I spotted a _ring. _I looked to the older Danny's hand as well…where there was also a ring!

Oh. My. Freaking. God. No way. No, no, no, no, no. I'm married! To _Sam_! Oh, I was _so_ glad that Tucker wasn't here to see this. I felt my face grow hot at the very thought. This was just _wwwaaaayy _too weird. But…strangely, it felt…right. _What have I gotten myself into…?_ I shook my head, and tried to ignore the confusion…but it wasn't working all that well. I continued to watch the scene unfold before me, and the older Danny walked to the kitchen and had begun to fill the cabinets with groceries. Sam followed after him to help, and she turned to him and asked sweetly, "Still no ghosts?" Danny chuckled and shook his head.

"Not one; not even the Box Ghost." Sam's eyebrows furrowed and she replied,

"Well that's strange…how long has it been?" Suddenly the older Danny visibly stiffened, and said

"Three weeks." _What!?_ Three weeks! Now that wasn't normal at all! And despite their cheerful attitudes, I could tell that they knew it as well. _So I guess there was a reason for Clockwork to send me._ I know I should have been happy. But I knew that something was up… There was something very wrong…and even if Clockwork did lie, I still had a responsibility. However…I wanted answers, and I was going to get them this time. I turned around and screamed, "CLOCKWORK!"

At first nothing happened…but after a few minutes of nothing, the air began to ripple and Clockwork swirled into view.

"Danny…you know I cannot interfere."

"I know that!" I growled, "I want answers; you said I'm about to die! Why am I still alive then?" I asked, pointing to the older Danny.

"You are about to die. He is as well. Danny, remember this- not everything is what it seems. If you start to assume things or doubt me, you will not succeed." He looked at me then, with large pleading eyes, "Please. I did not mean to scare you, but it is important that you do not forget your fate. Do not try and change it. Please! Sometimes things are terrible, and they are sad. But that does not mean that it wasn't meant to be. Sometimes, the greatest evils are the ones disguised as happy endings." He turned away then, and said apologetically, "I must depart now. And I can only return once more, when you are in your darkest hour of need. Bye Danny." And he left without another word or glance, taking my little hope with him.

AN: So sorry! I had exams this past week, and then I went to my friend's house! Grrrr…and this was the shortest chapter yet. Again, so sorry. The next chapter or two will be a bit filler-ish, but I promise that the plot will thicken soon.


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